This month, we shifted our focus from human health to pet health, featuring guest speaker Max Barton, alongside Rob Cooper, from Vet-AI. Vet-AI is part of Joii, a company dedicated to making veterinary care more accessible and affordable while improving the lives of pets. Joii is one of the largest telemedicine veterinary apps in the UK.

In this session, we learned about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), which combine academic and business collaboration to optimise outcomes. These partnerships involve both an academic and a company supervisor for a fixed period. Max is part of the Vet-AI/University of Leeds KTP.

Vet-AI is researching and developing predictive algorithms for various tasks, such as using gait analysis on dogs to enhance their quality of life and keep them active longer, wound classification, symptom checkers, and triage tools. Here are some interesting points and considerations about using AI for pets rather than humans:

• GDPR does not apply to animals.
• Can AI methods that work for humans be applied to animals?
• There is no public funding for animal health, resulting in fewer datasets.
• There are not enough electronic health record codes for pets to cover the variety of conditions and symptoms they experience.
• There is no standardised coding framework; sites and regions tend to have their own codes, making cross-practice sharing difficult.
• Different animal breeds can be more prone to certain health outcomes.

We discussed several key issues, from complex matters such as inter-rater reliability for supervised learning to simpler issues like blurry image uploads. We really enjoyed thinking about how AI can be translated to not only save human lives, but our furry friends lives too!

In the second half of the session, Siân Carey organised and ran a training with St John Ambulance, providing us with essential lessons on life-saving techniques. We learned the DR ABCs, recovery positions, and how to perform CPR. You never know when someone might need help. We extend our gratitude to St John Ambulance for volunteering their time to save lives.

Blog written by: Zoe Hancox